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His mixed musical background is probably an important reason for the fact that he dares to approach the most classical of jazz in this completely fearless album… A really good jazz album all the way through, where I mostly applaud Fox for finding his own language in the rich jazz tradition at the same time as he dares to be unfashionably conventional. -- Markus Axelsson, Jazz på Svenska
...exquisitely arranged and made precious by an infinite catalog of amusing details and harmonic refinement...passes from the modal atmosphere of 1960s jazz of "Uncle Wiggly" and "Eyeball Eyeball" (worthy of the pen of Oliver Nelson), to the silken oriental suggestions of the hypnotic "Guzzle"; to the embroiled Latin burning of "Do the Wiggle"...to the glamorous cool of the dreamy "Kooky Spooks." -- Luca Canine, All About Jazz Italia
Fox's music is a very enticing mix of the accessible and the quirky... The feel of the familiar combined with constant surprises is very enticing and enables Uncle Wiggly to give listening pleasure many times. -- Budd Kopman, All About Jazz
Northern Virginia heard madness and murder this weekend, as jazz met Japan in Rosslyn…Composer/director Billy Fox deftly guided the improvising chamber group through the world premiere of his 13 movement composition, receiving a standing ovation at the performance’s conclusion. -- Paul Ghosh-Roy, DCist
Composer, drummer, and percussionist. I've played and composed everything from hardcore punk to avant garde jazz. Stops along the way include rockabilly, speed metal, hip hop and funk, pop, and mambo and Latin Jazz. My most recent project is the Kaidan Suite, a 13-movement suite for improvising chamber ensemble, based on hyakumonogatari kaidankai (Japanese ghost stories told by candlelight). The Kitsune Ensemble, which is comprised of Japanese and American musicians, released the Kaidan Suite in January 2007 on Gozen Reiji Records.
Highlights of my compositional career include being awarded grants by the American Composers Forum (a McKnight Visiting Composers Fellowship, which will allow me to conduct workshops with Minnesota musicians in 2008) and the Puffin Foundation; being selected as first alternate for the Japan-US Friendship Commission's Creative Artists Fellowship; composing and recording the Uncle Wiggly Suite featuring Mark Dresser, which was released last year on Portugal's Clean Feed Records; composing Latin jazz charts for Daisuke Kurata for two concert series in Nagoya, Japan; arranging charts for Afro Cuban big bands at the Manhattan School of Music and New School University. My compositions are featured in the film Rhyme Animal, directed by Phil Roc (producer of Sony Music's documentary "Made in Heaven--The Making of Kind of Blue") and starring muMs ("Oz"), Al Thompson ("The Royal Tenenbaums"), and Bridget Barkan ("Sherrybaby"). As a sideman, I've worked with Nashville and Washington D.C.'s Last Train Home; Memphis and New York's Candice Ivory; Richmond, Va.'s Hotel X; Washington D.C.'s Beat Sugar, Nuevo Cache, and those underground hardcore punk legends, United Mutation and Malefice.
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